Archivos Mensuales: agosto 2018

FINDMYPAST ANNOUNCES RELEASE OF OVER 53 MILLION INDEXED ELECTORAL REGISTERS

· 1920s and 30s Electoral Registers now available to search with greater accuracy than ever before

· New and improved collection bridges the vital gap left by the destruction of the 1931 census of England and Wales

· Important documents will enable family historians to trace ancestors between the 1911 Census and 1939 register

Friday August 31st 2018: Leading British and Irish family history website, Findmypast, has today announced the release over 53 million indexed England and Wales Electoral Registers covering the 1920s and early 1930s.

Improved access to these important documents will enable many family historians bridge the vital gap left by the destruction of the 1931 census of England & Wales. Combined with the 1911 census and 1939 register, today’s release means that Findmypast is now able provide customers with unrivalled record coverage for early 20th century Britain, allowing them to trace their ancestors across a period of history that has traditionally been problematic for many researchers.

The new collection, England & Wales Electoral Registers 1920-1932, has been created by reprocessing the original documents in order to improve image quality. Findmypast’s has also developed a new process for picking out individual names, allowing this vast bank of records to be searched with greater accuracy than ever before.

For the very first time, the Registers can now be searched accurately by individual names in a similar way to other indexed collections currently available on the Findmypast. Searches will now also cover all of England and Wales and matching records from the registers will feed into hints for all customers with a Findmypast Family tree.

Electoral Registers are listings of all those registered to vote in a particular area. The lists were created annually to record the names of eligible voters and their reason for eligibility, such as their residence or ownership of a property. Registration for voters in England has been required since 1832 and registers were typically published annually, making electoral registers and excellent resource for tracking ancestors between the census years or for uncovering the history of your home or local area.

Estelle Calfe, Product Manager at Findmypast,said: The Electoral Registers 1920 – 1932 are such an important collection for family historians, as they really help you fill in those gaps and trace your ancestors’ journey between the 1911 census and the 1939 Register. Our team have built some incredible technology that has enabled us to make this collection searchable by first and last name for the first time

Record Coverage: It is important to know that while the England & Wales, Electoral Registers 1832-1932 is an extensive collection of electoral registers, it is not complete. Holdings are modest to 1885, good from then until 1915 and modest again from 1918 to 1932. It should also be noted that during the First World War compilation of the registers was suspended and was then resumed in 1918.

Furthermore, constituency boundaries have changed frequently over the years and borders of certain polling areas have been moved. For these reasons, we recommend that you undertake some research in advance to identify the constituency in which your ancestor lived. This is especially important for London, where current boroughs and district names may bear no relation to historic constituencies. For example, between 1885 and 1918, Tottenham was a division of the Parliamentary County of Middlesex. For help in identifying relevant constituencies, read the British Library’s Parliamentary Constituencies and Their Registers Since 1832available in Useful Links and Resources. In this publication, beginning on page 34, is a list of constituencies in alphabetical ordering, which includes the years that each constituency existed and the years of electoral registers held by the British Library, as well as the British Library shelfmark and any additional notes.

This dataset was created by scanning microfilms of historic electoral registers held by the British Library which existed in 2011. The massive microfilming programme was (and still is) on-going and registers filmed later are not included. This means that not all the constituencies listed in British Library’s Parliamentary Constituencies and Their Registers Since 1832 with microfilm shelfmarks beginning SPR.Mic.P are in the dataset.

Findmypast (previously DC Thomson Family History) is the British-owned world leader in online family history with over 18 million registered users across its family of brands, which include Findmypast, Genes Reunited, the British Newspaper Archive and Twile.

Its lead brand, also called Findmypast, is the home of the world’s most comprehensive online collection of British and Irish records, including:

· The largest online collection of UK parish records

· Twice the number of Irish records available on any other site

· The British Library’s vast collection of historical newspapers

· The exclusive Catholic Heritage Archive, a groundbreaking initiative that aims to digitize the historical records of the Catholic Church in North America, Britain and Ireland for the very first time

Findmypast is committed to making discoveries in the British Isles easier than ever before. It combines the best of British and Irish data with the knowledge of in house experts to provide a unique family history experience that guides researchers through every step of their journey.

For more information on how Findmypast is enhancing the experiences of family historians worldwide, visit: www.findmypast.com